Cardiology, long the golden goose of medtech innovation, is facing stiffer headwinds than ever before, threatening to slow new product growth. Yet, these clinical and industry experts remain bullish on the sector’s future prospects.

Though the European start-up community in medical devices is more robust than it was a generation ago, venture capital is still hard to come by. A veteran investor talks about some of the challenges medtech entrepreneurs and their investors face today and why he’s still committed to the industry.

Companies Covered:Earlybird Partners

Under the Lens: “J&J’s Cordis Divestiture Hints at Changes to Come in Medtech,” by Mary Thompson

Cardinal Health has agreed to purchase J&J’s Cordis cardiology and endovascular device business, a move that offers substantial long-term benefits for both companies, but also raises some interesting questions about the future of the device industry and what it will take for companies to compete effectively in a shifting, increasingly cost-conscious marketplace.

Inivata’s “liquid biopsy” technology addresses the need for noninvasive clinical genomic tests that have both broad coverage of genes and high sensitivity, enabling it to identify de novo rare cancer mutations by screening entire genes and cost-effectively track tumor burden over time in blood.